


Bets

by hangstzo



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Ana Amari is Amazing, Bets, Blackwatch Era, Fluff, M/M, Overwatch Family, Pre-Fall of Overwatch, Shenanigans, The Infamous Overwatch Betting Pools, how do tags work, idk this may become a series, there may or may not be a wedding in this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 22:57:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11861382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hangstzo/pseuds/hangstzo
Summary: Jesse McCree is a perceptive kind of guy, a talent that he exclusively uses to make bets he knows he will win. When it comes to working out just what the relationship is between Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes, he's pretty sure this is one bet he is definitely going to make a lot of money from.Enter Ana Amari, who may know a lot more than she lets on.





	Bets

“I’m tellin’ ya, there’s somethin’ goin’ on between ‘em.” Jesse pointed his fork at Angela, enunciating his words with a stab at the air while the girl hid a smile behind her hand. Genji rolled his eyes from the seat beside him, absently fidgeting with one of the tubes in his arm until one look from the doctor made him drop both hands to his sides, eyes narrowing in a half-hearted glare. Smirking, Jesse continued, “Seriously! Don’t y’all think I’m right?”

Angela sighed, leaning against her hand. The poor girl was always tired until she had some coffee in the mornings and even then her attempts to mask the bags under her eyes with make up didn’t do much to hide how exhausted she was. Jesse worried about her sometimes, but he worried about most people. “I don’t think it’s appropriate to talk about the commanders like this, if they-”

“What’s your proof?” Genji leaned towards him, interrupting the doctor much to her annoyance. Jesse had known the ninja long enough now to be able to tell when he was grinning beneath that mask and he could hear it now in his voice. “I will need the proof before I can make a bet, which I assume is why you’re talking about this.”

Jesse beamed at his friend, delighted to have the chance to talk. “Well since ya asked,” he began, ignoring the groan from Angela, “I saw the good Commander Reyes leavin’ a certain Strike Commander’s room las’ night at an un _god_ ly hour.”

\---

**Seven hours earlier**

Jesse frequently found himself wandering the corridors of the base late at night, in an attempt to stave off sleep. He had learned, after years of sleepless nights, that the best way to avoid nightmares was to stay awake until he was so exhausted he could barely stay upright. This did sometimes lead to awkward moments in the mornings where he would wake to find himself curled up in the middle of the corridor with an almighty pain in his neck and a very confused agent staring at him. On the plus side, he wasn’t waking in a cold sweat with the image of blood still burned into his mind.

As he made his way down in the general direction of the armoury, Jesse passed through the corridor of quarters of the senior Overwatch agents. The door to Captain Amari and Fareeha’s rooms was to his left and the one opposite led to Commander Morrison’s. Jesse wasn’t the biggest fan of the Strike Commander and he was pretty sure the feeling was mutual. The thought of somehow defacing the door began to cross his sleep-deprived mind before the sound of quiet laughter distracted him. He stepped back into the corner, for once grateful for the all black uniform he hated so much as he hid in the shadows.

“It’s three am, _mi alma_ , you’ve kept me way too long.” Jesse watched as Gabriel Reyes, his commander and the closest thing he’d ever had to a father, walked backwards out of Jack Morrison’s door, literally calling him ‘my soul’ in Spanish. Gabe’s rooms were miles away from here, the man liked to stay with the rest of Blackwatch. His mind went blank in total shock, trying to work out if this was just an exhaustion induced hallucination.

There was another laugh from inside as Morrison leaned against the door, smiling. “You could always stay a little longer, angel.” Jesse stared as the commanders began giggling like goddamn teenagers until Gabriel reached a hand out to the other man’s cheek, smiling. They exchanged words that Jesse could barely hear before the door shut and the Blackwatch commander set off in the direction of his quarters, a slight spring to his step.

As soon as the coast was definitely clear, Jesse let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. “Well ain’t that somethin’?” he said, to no one in particular, and started walking back towards his room. He had bets to make.

\---

“Why were you even _near_ Jack’s quarters?” Angela frowned at him, looking up from her near offensively healthy breakfast of a bowl of cereal and a couple of apple slices, balanced with her large mug of pure black coffee. She was the only person he knew who could handle her coffee that black and she often made flasks of the stuff to drink throughout a hectic day in the medical wing. “Your room is on the complete other end of the base.”

“Reeha left her ball down in my room an’ I was bringin’ it back to her.” The lie came easily to Jesse as he reached over to steal a slice of apple, smiling at Angela. “As I was sayin’, there’s somethin’ happenin’ between ‘em.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table and adjusted his hat. “An’ I’m puttin’ ten bucks on it.”

Genji laughed, his eyes crinkling at the sides as he rocked backwards on his chair. “Oh, now this is a bet.” The boy made a show of thinking about his options, rubbing at the chin of his mask, before leaning towards Jesse. There was a certain mischievous sparkle in his eyes. “I bet,” he began, sending an amused glance towards Angela as she sunk down slightly in her seat with a groan, “That it was a one time thing. And I’ll put _twenty_ on it.”

Angela sighed, rubbing at her temples. “I can’t believe you two. Men are so ridiculous.”

Jesse was about to respond with some sort of witty comment about Angela and her definitely not a girlfriend Tess when a voice from behind made him freeze. “ _Amiyn_ to that, Doctor Ziegler.” Captain Amari sat down in the empty seat beside him, yawning and clutching a cup of steaming tea in her hands. She ran a hand through her hair before fixing those eyes on the cowboy, that stare once again seeming to reach into whatever soul he had. “I hear you are betting on a personal _private_ relationship between your superiors again Jesse.”

“I, ah, it was jus’ a joke ma’am, I didn’t mean nothin’ of it. I-”

“I bet forty credits and my hat on them being married.” A wicked grin began to spread across Ana's face and Genji started to laugh as Angela sunk lower in her chair, hands over her face and groaning. The older woman just smiled and took a sip of her tea, still looking at Jesse. 

Jesse frowned for a moment, considering. Ana was one of Morrison and Gabe’s closest friends so surely she must have an idea of what was going on, giving her some sort of unfair advantage. Then again, he was scared shitless of the woman and couldn’t just say no. He shrugged and nodded, pointing at her. “Yeah alright. Anyone else got a bet?”

\---

**Thirteen years ago**

“Hey. Hey, Ana get up.”

Ana groaned, almost rolling out of her narrow bed as she turned to glare sleepily at whoever it was waking her. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness the grinning figures of Jack and Gabriel came into focus and she groaned again, louder this time. “You bastards,” she mumbled in Arabic, still not awake enough to speak English. “Piss off.”

Jack laughed, shaking her arm slightly. “C’mon Ana, we need you for a mission.”

“It’s two am, the mission isn't scheduled until eight,” she whined, dramatically putting her arm over her face. “Let me get back to sleep _nadhil_.” Ana could hear the two grown men giggling from beside her bed and she wanted nothing more than to punch the hell out of them. She hadn't known them for very long. The UN had justcobbled together this strike team at the last second, throwing one of the world’s best snipers into a team consisting of a ridiculously loud German Crusader, a tiny Swedish engineer, a Chinese tactician who had barely said a word to any of them and those two SEP idiots. It seemed the Americans came as a package deal. They were supposed to be shipped out for their first proper mission in the morning, heading to tackle the Omnium in Rio. She had not been informed about any secondary mission that may have been delegated to the Americans. 

Ana was an extremely perceptive woman. It had taken her exactly two seconds of being in a room with Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes to realise that the men were together. They were practically joined at the hip and any time they were separated one would look over at the other with some longing and love in his eyes. Gabriel had immediately claimed the bunk below the one Jack had chosen and Ana had noticed last night that Jack's bed did not look slept in. She wasn’t going to pry into their private lives, but she did think it was sweet. She had also bet good money on them being together. Torbjörn owed her fifteen credits.

“Please, Amari, this won’t even take an hour.” Gabriel gently lifted her arm off her face, quickly stepping back to avoid getting slapped while his partner sniggered. He smiled as she glared daggers at him until eventually she gave in and kicked her blanket off, sitting up with a pointed look. The American’s smile widened and he handed her a pair of shoes. “We need a witness.”

Ana frowned and slowly took the shoes, making sure not to take her eyes off the man. Her _jida_ had always told her that was the best way to intimidate someone and in her experience, she was right. “If you’re planning to murder somebody, witnesses are not what you want.”

Jack started laughing again, bright blue eyes almost lighting up in the darkness. “Oh Ana,” he said, trying to muffle his laughter, “We need a witness for the registry office.” He looked over at Gabriel, his eyes reflecting his smile, and turned back to her. “We’re gonna elope.” With that, he kissed the other man on the cheek and Gabriel took his hand, twisting their fingers together. 

Ana was quiet for a moment. That was not the request she was expecting. “Well then,” she said, beginning to put her shoes on, “Why didn’t you say that in the first place?” She got to her feet, grabbing her scarf and putting it on, smiling at the two men. “Do you even have rings or anything? Something old, new, borrowed or blue?”

They looked at each other, as if they were suddenly realising the seriousness of the situation. Gabriel looked around the room, focusing on the scarf around Ana’s neck and pointed at it. “That’s blue and didn’t you get it recently? If we have that, then it’s borrowed as well.” She unwrapped the scarf and handed it to him, vaguely amused at his efforts to find something old.

“Do the tags count as old?” Jack reached under his shirt, bringing out a very scratched pair of dog tags. One of them was bent in the corner. Ana hadn't seen a pair of traditional tags in years, the Egyptian military had favoured tattoos and her hand touched the code on her shoulder absently. She had seen a similar tattoo on the back of the American soldiers' necks, meaning the tags were probably more for sentimental value. 

Gabriel looked up from his search and took his own pair of tags out, nodding. “That's brilliant, goldie. Ana, I'm marrying a genius.”

“I saw the man you're marrying run into Reinhardt's hammer and fall onto his face yesterday,” Ana deadpanned, smirking at Jack's scandalised gasp and reddening face. She took one of Gabriel's pair of tags and swapped it for one of Jack's then nodded, satisfied. “Right. So we're going to try and find somewhere that will marry you two _alhamir_ at twenty past two in the morning? Lead the way.”

The three of them set off, the Americans leading the way as they seemed to quietly bicker over whose name would go first in a double barrelled surname. Ana followed a few paces behind out of habit, always doing her best to keep watch of the surroundings for potential hostiles. They weren't supposed to be making their presence known, Overwatch was supposed to be here secretly so as not to raise any alarm among the omnics, although she was sure it would be hard to keep the giant that was Reinhardt hidden. Luckily, there didn't seem to be anyone nearby at this ridiculous time and Ana took out her datapad, leeching off a nearby hotspot as she searched up someone who made custom dog tags. Wasn't it traditional to buy the happy couple a wedding gift?

\---

Jesse was getting pretty sick of Gabe and Morrison’s constant PDAs. They were like two high school sweethearts, dissolving into fits of giggles at certain words. He was pretty sure he had seen them _holding hands_ on more than one occasion. It had been a long time since he had won his bet with Genji, the ninja having only bet on it being a one night stand that he had seen. He was soon proven wrong after going on a mission with the two of them. He came home vaguely traumatised and handed him a twenty on his way past, muttering something in Japanese under his breath. Soon after that, the relationship between the two men became pretty obvious and Jesse was revelling in all the money he was making off his bets. It was a minor miracle that the public weren’t aware of it. Overwatch’s PR department must have been working overtime on it.

“Oh my god why don’ you two get married already?” Jesse snapped one day after being subjected to the commanders acting like teenagers on the seats opposite him. “I ain’t even jokin’ for once.”

Gabe grinned at him, his arm lazily resting around Morrison's shoulders. “How long's it been now goldie?”

“Thirteen years in July since we signed the papers.” Morrison leaned over to kiss Gabe's cheek and laughed at Jesse's shocked expression. “What, did you think we’ve been keeping it secret for this long?”

Jesse spluttered as Captain Amari snorted from beside him. Finally he regained his ability to speak. “But you don’ have... rings or nothin’, or like the names?”

Gabe stuck his hand down the neck of his shirt, pulling out a pair of old fashioned dog tags. “Ana got us these instead.” He threw them at him and Jesse held them up, smiling slightly to see the name ‘Gabriel Reyes-Morrison’ engraved on the metal. “We don’t use the full names for Overwatch business,” Gabe explained, gently stroking Jack's hair, “but we're married.”

“So you got your name to go first then Gabe?” Jesse threw the tags back at his mentor, grinning, but still vaguely confused by this revelation. Something in the back of his mind was telling him that he had heard about this somewhere but it was just out of reach, just on the edge of his memory. 

Morrison shook his head, taking out his own dog tags. “Mine says Morrison-Reyes. We couldn't decide anyway.”

“You were nightmares about it for _so long_ ,” Ana moaned but winked at Jesse. “It’s not like you were ever going to agree on a name. Plus, rings are overrated. I lost my engagement ring within three weeks.”

Jesse blinked again, looking at Ana this time. “ _You’re_ married?”

It was Gabriel's turn to laugh as the Amari looked uncomfortable. “Oh this story is amazing.”

“Shut up, _nadhil_. Jesse, that story is for another time.” Then as an afterthought, she added, “and I was never married.”

Jack piped up, a shit-eating grin on his face. “Yeah, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” 

Once again he and Gabe collapsed into giggles as Ana stared at them in the same way she looked at Fareeha when she was being particularly silly, eyebrows knitted together in false anger while her eyes remained soft. It always reminded Jesse of his mama. Just as he began to speak, the sniper leaned against him, bumping her shoulder against his. “You owe me forty credits, _abn_. I’ll pass on taking your hat.”

Jesse stared at her, disbelieving, before he somehow managed to find his words. “You-I- _joder_.” Ignoring Gabe’s halfhearted “language _mijo_ ” he pointed at her, frowning. “You _knew_. The bet don’t count if ya knew already!”

“Of course I knew, I was their witness. And that’s not part of the rules.” Ana tutted, moving his hand back down onto his lap. “You know nothing about bets, _alsghyr_. Jack also owes me twenty because you didn’t figure it out on your own, and Gabriel needs to give me fifteen because you found out before Genji.” With that, she held out a palm to the two men, who began digging through pockets, looking annoyed while she smiled triumphantly. “I’ve never lost a bet.”

Jesse had to stop himself from whining as he slumped in his seat. “Neither had I.”

 

After that discovery, Jesse didn't mind the affection as much, until it stopped. And when it did, God he would do anything to see Gabe laughing into Morrison's shoulder or the two of them curled up on the sofa in the common room, talking to each other in voices so quiet that no one else could hear them. Towards the end of Overwatch, they became cold and distant. Morrison rarely spoke to him unless he was ordering a mission or lecturing him on a failed one. Gabe retaliated frequently, accusing the commander of not staging an investigation into why their mission details were being leaked, claiming there was some kind of conspiracy behind it all. The Strike Commander didn’t listen to him, dismissing his conspiracy as some sort of ridiculous theory.

But Jesse saw how upset they really were. After an argument between the commanders, he had found Gabe sitting alone in his office, shakily twisting those dog tags through his fingers with a half empty glass of whiskey on his desk. Angela reported seeing Morrison heading to Ana’s old quarters one night seemingly in tears where he stayed all night. No one had touched those rooms since her death but it wasn’t uncommon for one of the older Overwatch members to be seen going in or out of them. Jesse would be lying if he said he hadn’t found himself there on occasion.

Yet they still had moments. Jesse had come across the pair during one of his final late night wanderings before he made up his mind about leaving the organisation. They were sitting on the floor of the common room, backs resting against the couch and talking softly to each other. Gabe had his hand back where it belonged, running through Morrison’s greying hair. Jack was curled up against his side, head resting on his husband’s shoulder, speaking soft words that he couldn’t make out from his position just outside the door. They looked like the picture of domestic bliss, alone in their own world, one where they weren’t under scrutiny by everyone else.

Things always start to decay from the inside, slow and unseen at first, but when the rot comes to the surface the extent of the destruction can be, for want of a better word, _explosive_.

**Author's Note:**

> TRANSLATIONS  
> mi alma- Spanish, 'my soul'  
> Amiyn- Arabic, 'Amen'  
> nadhil- Arabic, 'bastard'  
> jida- Arabic, 'grandmother'  
> alhamir- Arabic, 'donkeys' (I've been told this can mean idiots, but I may be wrong)  
> abn- Arabic, 'son'  
> joder- Spanish, 'fuck'  
> mijo- Spanish, 'son'  
> alsghyr- Arabic, 'little one'
> 
> All bow before queen Ana Amari, master of bets.  
> So I don't know if I made it clear enough, but my headcanon is that Jack and Gabe got together before SEP and went through that together because god help whoever wanted to break those two up. And when it came to putting the Overwatch strike team together, whoever it was who was told to maybe choose one of their SEP soldiers was like "fuck it I ain't splitting Reyes and Morrison up" and put them both into it. That flashback is just before the strike team's first real mission together and the two of them just decided to throw caution to the wind and go get married. Poor Ana got caught up in it and just decided to go with it. I think Fareeha may have been about one in this fic? I'm not sure. (Also, me writing a fic with zero mentions of my fave girl? I know I was as surprised as you guys)  
> Also while writing this, I realised that there's a sixth member of the strike team-Liao. Y'all there's fucking NOTHING on Liao except the name. They are the true cryptid of Overwatch.  
> I'm [on tumblr](http://picturefirelizards.tumblr.com/) where you will currently find me freaking out over the new short. It's this week guys, THIS WEEK!


End file.
